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Hello!

Thank you for the amazing 8 years here at A Baked Creation, we can't thank you enough for the memories! But we've decided to move over to a new site - Sincerely, Syl. Please join us there for future posts on all the things you loved here!

Sincerely,
Syl

Thursday, December 31, 2009

How: Stegosaurus Birthday Cake

My favourite little cousin was born on New Year's Eve and I asked him what kind of birthday cake he would want. My aunt was whispering and nudging for a chocolate cake, but Justin politely asked for a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, decorated with dinosaurs. Done and done!

I can tell that Justin will be a good baker when he grows up. Justin occasionally helps me out in the kitchen. He is very good at using the ice-cream scoop to evenly distribute cupcake batter, keeping an eye on the oven, and taste-testing. This year, he made a fondant snowman for one of his cupcakes.

Fondant Stegosaurus

Rolled fondant
Gel paste colours
Clean toothpicks
Water
Brown or black sprinkles/jimmies
A rolling pin
A knife
  1. If you are lucky enough to have coloured fondant, then you can skip these steps! Unless you want white-coloured dinosaurs, you will have to dye your white fondant. Get the gel paste in the colours you want and use a clean toothpick to dab into the gel.
  2. Transfer the gel from the toothpick onto the fondant. Knead and roll until the fondant is completely coloured. Please do not double-dip the toothpick, use a new one if you need more gel for a darker shade.
  3. I prefer having the plates and spikes a different colour than the body, so I will dye two colours for each Stegosaurus!
  4. To make the body of the Stegosaurus, roll out this hill shape: a pointy end for the tail, a round end for the head. The body should be thicker than the head and the tail. It kind of looks like a fat slug:
  5. Roll out four square-like shapes for the front and back legs. Attach them onto the body.
  6. Using the rolling pin, roll your fondant smooth and flat. It should be about 2-3mm thick. With your fondant cutter or knife, cut out a long rectangular shape. Trim it so that it is not longer than the Stegosaurus' body that you made.
  7. Again, using a fondant cutter or knife, cut out small triangles. This will create the back plates:
  8. Carefully lift the plates and using a tiny dab of water, adhere it to the back of the Stegosaurus:
  9. Create 3-4 fondant spikes or use long sprinkles for the spikes on the tail.
  10. Lastly, take two sprinkles or jimmies to make eyes. You can also make a mouth using a thin knife:
Bonus! Fondant Water Creature

Rolled fondant
Gel paste colours
Clean toothpicks
Water
Brown or black sprinkles/jimmies
A rolling pin
A knife
  1. It is basically the same concept as the Stegosaurus above - except you do three parts. You will need to make the tail, body, and long neck separately:
  2. Make sure you make the tail and long neck longer than it needs to be. Why? Because they will need be submerged in the cake.
  3. After making these parts, leave it out to dry for at least an hour so that the fondant hardens. This will help keep the tail and neck standing in the cake (or 3 cupcakes).
Ta-da! Some kind of water creature slash dinosaur!
I'm sure it is related to the Stegosaurus...

What? Stegosaurus and water relative can have birthday cake too!
Happy Birthday Justin!!!

21 comments:

  1. AW! This is so super neat! I love the creatures converging on the birthday cake... so glad I discovered your blog!

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  2. OvenDelights - Thank you!! Water creatures are fun to make! =)

    Mae - Many thanks and I'm happy to discover your blog too! Wowee are your photos gorgeous!! =D

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  3. You finally did a tutorial! Thanks soooo much! It was great!! I'm going to be using this idea a lot now! :P
    Looking forward to more of these!

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  4. Avanika [YumsiliciousBakes] - Yup!! I know, I'm so slow at these, but tutorials take a long time (make, pause, get camera, make another small bit, pause, get camera, etc.) I hope you find it easy to follow and I can't wait to see your dinos!

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  5. Great tutorial! You make it look so easy. Love the water creature!

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  6. Little Miss Cupcake - Aw shucks! Thank you!! =D

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  7. OMG, I love these dinosaurs! My kids would go crazy for them...thanks for the how-to!!

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  8. cookies and cups - Thank you and no problem!! Love your cupcake pop profile pic! =)

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  9. ahhhhdorable!! thanks for sharing your how-to also! great pics as usual...

    lyndsay :)

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  10. These are just adorable! I am going to attempt to make them for my son's birthday party this weekend. Thank you for the tutorial.

    One question though, did you make them of fondant alone, or did you add any hardening agent (gum paste or something else?)

    Anyway, thanks for the post and the blog - very creative. =)

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  11. Hi Pam,

    Ooo, I hope you find the tutorial helpful! I made them with fondant alone and did not add anything (except colour gel) to them.

    I look forward to seeing your dino photos, I hope you post them! =)

    Thanks,
    Sylvia

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  12. this was VERY HELPFUL for me,my son loves dinosaurs and this gave me great ideas in making his 6th birthday cake,it turned out super nice,he loved it and everyone was amazed..glad i found your blog

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  13. Hi Rania,

    I'm so happy to hear that this post helped you! Happy belated birthday to your son! =)

    Cheers,
    Sylvia

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  14. Thank you so much for sharing! My sister and I made these last night for a friend's birthday! They are so cute. Our dinosaur look like they have Mohawks! :)

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  15. Hi Sally,

    That made my night, mohawk dinosaurs!! Glad they turned out cute, did you take photos?

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  16. Hi There!
    I just love this cake and especially that little birthday cake! Can you please tell me how you made that? It's so perfect! I'm making a cake this weekend with garden creatures in it, and would love to incorporate that cute cake!
    Thanks so much!
    Julie

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  17. Hi Julie!

    It quite easy, you just need a Wilton No. 233 Multi-Opening Decorating Tip to pipe frosting into green grass.

    After your cake is filled and cooled, crumb coat it. Then fill your piping bag with green frosting and pipe away: http://www.wilton.com/technique/Grass

    After, place your fondant garden creatures on top! If you want to include a pond, carefully pipe blue frosting on the crumb coat. Then use a metal spatula to smooth it out and make wave or ripples.

    Let me know if you have any questions!

    Cheers,
    Sylvia

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  18. I just tried this and it's awesome! thanks

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